House Primordial—See Siol.
Houses of the Congregate—A quasi-legislative assembly consisting of the primary landholding families of the Nansur Empire.
Hull—Name given to the walls and fortifications of Kelmeol.
Hulwarga, Hringa (4086—4121)—Man-of-the-Tusk, second son of King Hringa Rauschang of Thunyerus, and leader of the Thunyeri contingent of the First Holy War after the death of his older brother, Prince Hringa Skaiyelt, in Caraskand. Called the Limper because of his uneven gait. Found murdered in 4121, apparently at the hand of a jealous mistress, though rumours of sorcerous assassination persist.
Hundred Gods—The collective name of the Gods enumerated in The Chronicle of the Tusk and worshipped either under the auspices of the Cults (which is to say, subordinate to the Thousand Temples), or in the traditional versions of the Kiünnat. In the Inrithi tradition, the Hundred Gods are thought to be aspects of the God (whom Inri Sejenus famously called “the Million Souled”), much the way various personality traits could be said to inhabit an individual. In the far more variegated Kiünnat tradition, the Hundred Gods are thought to be independent spiritual agencies, prone to indirectly intervene in the lives of their worshippers. Both traditions recognize the differences between the Compensatory Gods, who promise direct reward for worship and devotion, the Punitive Gods, who secure sacrifices through the threat of suffering, and the more rare Bellicose Gods, who despise worship as sycophancy and favour those who strive against them. Both the Inrithi and Kiünnat traditions see the Gods as indispensable to eternal life in the Outside.
The esoteric apologist Zarathinius is infamous for arguing (in A Defence of the Arcane Arts) the absurdity of worshipping deities as imperfect and capricious as mere Men. The Fanim, of course, believe the Hundred Gods are renegade slaves of the Solitary God—demons.
Hundred Pillars—The Warrior-Prophet’s personal bodyguard, named after the one hundred men rumoured to have surrendered their water—and their lives—to him on the Trail of Skulls. The coronation of Anasûrimbor Kellhus as Aspect-Emperor led to the institutionalization of the bodyguard as a military subministry charged with the protection of the Imperial Family.
Huösi, Lake—A large freshwater lake draining the Vindauga and Sculpa river systems, and emptying into the Wutmouth.
Hurminda, Possû (4101—4132)—Ordealman, Satrap of Sranayati, killed in the days leading up to the disaster at Irsûlor.
Hûrochur—“Jutting Nail” (Kûniüric). See Dagliash.
hustwarra—The Galeoth name for camp wives.
Husyelt—The God of the hunt. One of the so-called Compensatory Gods, who reward devotion in life with paradise in the afterlife, Husyelt comes after only Yatwer and Gilgaöl in Cultic popularity, particularly in the Middle-North. In the Higarata, the collection of subsidiary writings that form the scriptural core of the Cults, Husyelt is depicted as the most anthropocentric of the Hundred Gods, as intent upon enabling his worshippers as he is upon securing their obedience and devotion. The Cult of Husyelt is rumoured to be extraordinarily wealthy, and high-ranking members of the Husyeltic priesthood often possess as much political clout as Shrial apparati.
Huterat—A town on the Sempis Delta, destroyed by the First Holy War in 4111.
I
idolaters—A term commonly used by Fanim to refer to Inrithi.
Iëva (2112—2140)—Legendary wife of Anasûrimbor Nau-Cayuti, tried and executed for his murder in 2140.
Ihrimsû—The tongue of Injor-Niyas.
Ikurei, House—A Nansur House of the Congregate, with holdings concentrated in and about Momemn. The Imperial House since 3941.
Ikurei Anphairas I (4022—4081)—The Emperor of Nansur from 4066 until his death in 4081, and grandfather of Ikurei Xerius III. Assassinated by persons unknown.
Ikurei Dynasty—Always one of the more powerful Houses of the Congregate, the Ikurei seized the Imperial Mantle in 3941, capitalizing on the turmoil following the loss of Shigek and then Gedea to Kian in the Dagger Jihad. Ikurei Sorius I became the first of a line of shrewd yet defensive Ikurei Emperors. See Nansur Empire.
Ikurei Xerius III (4059— )—The Emperor of the Nansur Empire.
Ilculcû Rift—“Sky of Ulcû” (Ihrimsû). Vast fracture cavern, sometimes referred to as the Sky-Beneath-the-Mountain, located in the heart of Ishterebinth, and forming the abyssal heights that are the fame of the Hanging Citadels.
Illawor—Coastal province of ancient Aörsi.
Illisserû—“The Lighthouse” (Aujic). One of the great Nonman Mansions before the Breaking of the Gates, located in what Men now call the Betmulla Mountains. “Sepil himi loi’nu muomi,” the nameless poet of Six-Skins-Folded writes of the Illisserû: “The Sea is their Deepest Deep.” The Illisseri love of the sea is the primary reason they remain at the margins of Nonman lore as inherited by the Three Seas.
Imbeyan ab Imbaran (4067—4111)—Sapatishah-Governor of Enathpaneah and son-in-law of the Padirajah, slain at Caraskand.
Imburil—“Newborn” (Aujic). Nonman name for the Nail of Heaven.
Imimorûl—The central figure of Nonman scriptures, named “Father of the False” in The Chronicle of the Tusk, and in Mannish traditions, a once-glorious God imprisoned deep in the earth as punishment for teaching sorcery to the Nonmen. According to Cûnuroi traditions, Imimorûl was not imprisoned within the earth, but sought refuge in the “Deepest Deep,” those places the gods could not judge because they could not see. Though Ajencis famously attributes the Nonman aversion to open sky to his theory of “vital accommodations,” the Nonmen themselves see this predilection as a sacred observance of Imimorûl’s ancient straits—as well as the best way to find oblivion upon their deaths.
Im’inaral Lightbringer (?—?)—Hero of Siol struck down beneath the original gatehouse of Min-Uroikas by Sil, the Inchoroi King.
Imirsiol—“Hammer of Siol” (Gilcûnya). Legendary blade forged for Oirûnas by the arcane smith Virimlû once the Hero grew Tall.
Imhailas, Gawol (4093—4132)—Exalt-Captain of the Eöthic Guard, rumoured to be the lover of Anasûrimbor Esmenet, summarily executed by the Inchausti in 4132 for harbouring the fugitive Empress during the Shrial Insurrection.
Immiriccas (?—?)—Son of Cinial’jin, called the Goad, the Malcontent, the Despiser. Sentenced to death in the month preceding the Second Battle of the Ark, his sentence was committed to his Kinning, who sold him to Ishoriol as a battle slave, a role which saw him heaped with glory, for none bore the Vile more hatred. His notoriety allegedly secured the affections of Mu’miorn, the most coveted lover in the Citadels, and long-time paramour of Nil’giccas. Claiming the Seal of the House Primordial, the Nonman King assumed the claims-of-grievance belonging to Cu’jara Cinmoi, and commanded the execution of Immiriccas. Strife between Injori Ishroi and the Dispossessed Sons of Siol followed, a rift that was only partially healed when Nil’giccas commended Immiriccas to Emilidis, who asked the condemned Ishroi to choose between execution and sorcerous transmogrification—eternal life bound to the Amiolas.
Imperial Army—A common name for the standing Nansur army.
Imperial Precincts—The name given to the grounds of the Andiamine Heights.
Imperial Saik—The School indentured to the Nansur Emperor.
Imperial Sun—The primary symbol of the Nansur Empire.
Imperial Synod—The highest council of the Greater Congregate, held in the Synodine on the Andiamine Heights, tasked with advising the Aspect-Emperor.
Impromta, The—The anonymously written collection of the Warrior-Prophet’s earliest sermons and aphorisms.
Imrothas, Sarshressa (4054—4111)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Palatine of the Conriyan province of Aderot, claimed by disease at Caraskand.
Incariol—“Lord Wanderer” (Ihrimsû). Enigmatic Nonman Erratic companion of Lord Kosoter. Also known as Cleric.
Incarnal—Name given to the battle-madness suffered to varying degrees by the Holca.
Incest Song of Linqiru—Famous Nonman lay recounting the sca
ndalous love affair that produced Cu’jara Cinmoi.
And hidden from the sky,
in the deepest of the Holy Deep,
they conceived the very point of the spear,
Cu’jara Cinmoi, cast upon
godhead, arrogance-that-is-joy,
conjoining the very blood their birth had torn asunder,
as holy Tsonos and Olissis …
Inchausti—The personal bodyguard of the Holy Shriah following the institutional reforms of Anasûrimbor Maithanet, selected from the most faithful and formidable of the Shrial Knights.
Inchoroi—“People of Emptiness” (Ihrimsû). A mysterious and obscene race that, according to legend, descended from the void in the Incû-Holoinas. Calling themselves the Iyiskû, the Inchoroi have always claimed (during brief truces with the Cûnuroi) to be shipwrecked upon the World, the victims of a cataclysm that brought them flaming down from the Void. In truth, however, they have come to extinguish all life, believing that destroying all souls upon our World will shut it against the Outside, thus saving their souls from damnation should they die.
Incû-Holoinas—“Ark-of-the-Skies” (Ihrimsû). The great vessel that brought the Inchoroi from the heavens and became the golden heart of Golgotterath. All scholars agree that the Incû-Holoinas was some kind of ship built to sail the sky, that it crashed some time prior to the inscription of the Tusk, but only a rare handful concede the claim that it sailed the Void proper, which is to say, between stars. The most compelling rebuttal of this fanciful notion comes from Ajencis himself, who pointed out that the stars would move relative one another were they not uniformly embedded in a sphere hanging a fixed distance about the sky. Since the relative positioning of the stars is identical in star charts inked from different corners of the World, we can be assured that the Incû-Holoinas “came from someplace distant, but not far away.” This, the Great Kyranean concludes, means the Incû-Holoinas must hail from the Outside and not the stars.
This disagreement in origins forms the basis of the two different families of speculation on the Incû-Holoinas, with Nonmen and Far Antique Mannish accounts generally insisting it’s a vessel constructed to cross the Void, and with more recent Mannish accounts agreeing that it’s a vessel constructed to escape damnation in the Outside. Where the former accounts hold the occupants to be “aliens,” monstrosities from another World, the latter accounts claim the Inchoroi were in fact ciphrangi—demons, in effect.
The tremendous advantage of the latter theories turns on their economy, on the fact that they need posit nothing new to explain either the Incû-Holoinas or the Inchoroi. If the Ark were a vessel from another planet, then it had to be constructed by the Inchoroi themselves, when plainly, given its boggling dimensions, only a God could have forged it. Given the evil, rapacious nature of the Inchoroi, the construction is typically attributed to Ajokli. Some even think the Incû-Holoinas comprises two of the fabled Four Horns attributed to the trickster God in the Tusk and elsewhere. Indeed, some Near Antique lays refer to the conspicuously golden vessel as the Halved Crown of Hate.
Though the question of the origin of the Incû-Holoinas can be assumed to be safely settled, vexing questions abide, not the least of which concerns the actual size of the unholy vessel, and, most notoriously, whether the Consult still inhabits it. Though some promise is to be had in the resolution of the former controversy, Mandate arrogance and delusion promises to render the latter debate an endless mire.
Indara-Kishauri—The “tribe” of the Cishaurim. The “Indara” refer, in Kianene tradition, to the “tribe of water-bearers,” a legendary band that supposedly wandered the dunes dispensing water and mercy to the faithful. The designation is critical (according to the kipfa’aifan, it saved Fane’s life), given the importance of tribal affiliation in desert Kianene society.
The pastoralists of the Carathay desert are unique in possessing a grammatical distinction between us and them, self and other, one which can only be captured in Sheyic as “us-them.” The stories of the Indara-Kishauri ranging from their mythical home of Udavant hidden somewhere in the lifeless heart of the Great Salt personify this distinction for the Kianene in particular, who referred to their shamanistic Kiunnat priests as such. These formed the trans-tribal basis for the spread of Fanimry, as well as the sudden transformation of a fractious, internecine tribal people into a cohesive, empire-building nation. By characterizing his miraculous powers as “water” and himself as a divine “water-bearer,” Fane managed to seize high ground built into the very structure of Kianene language.
Indenture, the—The infamous document used by Ikurei Xerius III in his attempt to secure the lands conquered by the First Holy War.
Indigo Plague—According to legend, the pestilence swept up from the No-God’s ashes after his destruction at the hands of Anaxophus V in 2155. Mandate scholars dispute this, claiming that the No-God’s body was recovered by the Consult and interred in Golgotterath. Whatever the cause, the Indigo Plague ranks as among the worst in recorded history.
Indurum Barracks—A lodging for soldiers located in Caraskand and dating back to the Nansur occupation of the city.
Ingiaban, Sristai (4059—4121)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Palatine of the Conriyan province of Kethantei. Murdered by thieves while visiting family in Aoknyssus.
Ingol—Mountain in the Urokkas.
Ingoswitu (1966—2050)—A far antique Kûniüric philosopher, famed in his own day for Dialogia but primarily known in the Three Seas through Ajencis and his famed critique of Ingoswitu’s Theosis in The Third Analytic of Men.
Ingraul—A fiefdom of the Thunyeri Sranc Marches.
Ingressus—The great well of Ishterebinth, often referred to as the Vast Ingressus given its boggling dimensions.
Ingusharotep II (c. 1000—c. 1080)—The Old Dynasty Shigeki King who conquered the Kyranae Plains.
Injor-Niyas—The last remaining Nonman nation, located beyond the Demua Mountains. See Ishterebinth.
Inner Luminal—Hall of Ishterebinth connecting the Concavity (the “Mnemonic”) to the greater mansion, eventually becoming a sobriquet for Nil’giccas.
Inoculation—According to the Isûphiryas, the infamous “cure for mortality” first given to Cû’jara Cinmoi, King of Siol, by Sarpanur of the Inchoroi, and thence to nearly every Cûnuroi living. The term ‘inoculation’ specifically refers to the most agonizing stage of the therapy, whereby hollow pins are inserted into every tissue in the body, steeping them in the age-killing nostrum. The Nonmen were by no means foolish enough to embrace the Inoculation all at once—nearly a century passed before the last dissenters relented, and allowed the servile (appearing) Inchoroi to minister to them. The first problems did not appear until those already advanced in age began to die, universally (with the notable exception of Morimhira). But since those lost were so near the Deepest Deep already, very little suspicion was aroused. Queen Hanalinqû was the first to fall to what would come to be called the “Womb-Plague,” a lethal malady that seemed to spread as contagion, but was in fact manifesting according to when womenfolk were first Inoculated. Even still, suspicions were not aroused until it became apparent the Inchoroi were evacuating Eärwa. Thus began the disaster that would be the doom of the Nonmen, and the woe that would drive so many Ishroi mad for grief and loss. The “death of death” promised by Nin-janjin, Sil, and Sarpanur, became the death of birth (Nasamorgas) as well.
Inrau, Paro (4088—4110)—A former student of Drusas Achamian, slain in Sumna.
Inri Sejenus (c. 2159—2202)—The Latter Prophet and spiritual (although not historical) founder of the Thousand Temples, who claimed to be the pure incarnation of Absolute Spirit (“the very proportion of the God”), sent to emend the teachings of the Tusk. After his death and supposed ascension to the Nail of Heaven, his disciples recounted his life and teachings in The Tractate, the text that is now considered by the Inrithi to be as holy as The Chronicle of the Tusk.
Inrilil ab Cinganjehoi (4099— )—Ordealman, Believer-Prince of Eumarn
a, general of the Eumarnan contingent in the Great Ordeal of Anasûrimbor Kellhus.
Inrithi—The followers of Inri Sejenus, the Latter Prophet, and his amendments to the Tusk.
Inrithism—The faith founded upon the revelations of Inri Sejenus, the Latter Prophet, which synthesizes elements of both monotheism and polytheism. The central tenets of Inrithism deal with the immanence of the God in historical events, the unity of the individual deities of the Cults as Aspects of the God, and the role of the Thousand Temples as the very expression of the God in the world.
Following the alleged ascension of Inri Sejenus, Inrithism slowly established itself throughout the Ceneian Empire as an organized hierarchy independent of the state—what came to be called the Thousand Temples. Initially, the existing traditionalist Kiünnat sects simply dismissed the new religion, but as it continued to grow, a number of attempts were made to circumscribe its powers and prevent its further spread, none of them particularly effective. Escalating tensions eventually culminated in the Zealot Wars (c. 2390—2478), which, although technically a civil war, saw battles fought far outside the boundaries of what then constituted the Ceneian Empire.
In 2469, Sumna capitulated to Shrial forces, but hostilities continued until Triamis was anointed Emperor in 2478. Though himself Inrithi (converted by Ekyannus III), and despite enacting the constitution governing the division of powers between the Imperium and the Thousand Temples, he refrained from declaring Inrithism the official state religion until 2505. From that point the ascendancy of the Thousand Temples was assured, and over the ensuing centuries the remaining Kiünnat “heresies” of the Three Seas would either wither away or be forcibly stamped out.
The rise of Fanimry and the Kianene Empire from the 38th century onward posed the first great challenge to the dominance of Inrithism—a threat so severe as to induce many in the Thousand Temples to advocate the removal of the Holy Tusk in Sumna to Aöknyssus. If anything, however, the existential challenge led to a revival of enthusiasm and militancy both among Inrithi faithful of all castes, culminating in the election of Anasûrimbor Maithanet as Shriah and the calling of the First Holy War in 4111.